South Korea yesterday announced plans to spend an extra 4.9 trillion won (US$3.5 billion) this year to create 550,000 new jobs as it teeters on the edge of a recession brought on by the global slump.
The decision was reached at a special presidential council meeting on the economic crisis, the presidential office said. The money will come from a supplementary budget to be unveiled next week.
Media reports and officials say the government is likely to ask parliament to approve an extra budget of around 30 trillion won.
The country’s export-driven economy is on the brink of its first recession since 1998. The official unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent last month, the highest in almost four years.
The number of people employed fell by 142,000 year-on-year, the largest reduction since September 2003.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called for all-out efforts to save or create jobs.
“The government’s goal this year is to create jobs because many people talk about social welfare, but the best welfare the government can provide is a job,” he told the meeting.
“The largest goal of the supplementary budget is first to create jobs and second to create jobs,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.
These must first go to people who are the sole breadwinners in a family, he said, stressing that work gives people confidence and builds the base for economic recovery.
The country’s biggest business and union groups have already announced what Lee has called “historic, unprecedented measures” to save jobs — including wage cuts and job-sharing.
The spending announced yesterday amounts to roughly 2.9 trillion won for direct job creation, 500 billion won for encouraging job-sharing measures, 158 billion won for training and about 1.6 trillion won for measures to promote new employment and support the poor.
South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun has said the economy will likely contract 2 percent this year and lose 200,000 jobs.
Daniel Melser, a senior economist with Moody’s Economy.com, called this figure optimistic and said the export-driven economy is likely to shed at least half a million jobs over the course of this year.
He said yesterday’s program was unlikely to reach its job creation target.
“Nevertheless, if the money is appropriately directed it will help to make somewhat of a dent in Korea’s lengthening unemployment queues — though a smaller dent than the half-million jobs which is hoped for,” Melser wrote in a commentary.
The collapse in foreign demand for South Korea’s exports had hit manufacturing very hard, with the finance and construction sectors also feeling the brunt of the crisis, he said.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS